Aon Sells Interest In Endurance
By Mark E. Ruquet
NU Online News Service, Dec. 6, 2:23 p.m. EDT?Aon has sold the majority of its equity investment in Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurance company, for $320.5 million.[@@]
The Chicago-based broker said it has sold 9.8 million shares at a net realized price of $32.70 per share.
Aon said it would retain 4.1 million shares.
"We are very proud to have participated in the founding of Endurance in December 2001, at a time when the insurance industry needed additional capacity," said Patrick G. Ryan, chairman and chief executive officer of Aon Corporation.
Mr. Ryan said the additional capacity created by the establishment of Endurance and other insurers during that period "has contributed to the present easing of property-casualty insurance premium pricing."
Gary Sullivan, senior vice president of corporate communication, said the sale of the shares has nothing to do with ongoing investigations of broker commissions by state attorneys general and regulators. He added that there are no plans to sell the remaining interest in Endurance in the near future.
Aon is one of a number of brokers who have received subpoenas from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in an investigation of contingent fee commission abuses. After a suit was filed against Marsh & McLennan Companies in mid-October, Aon, along with Marsh and Willis, said they would no longer accept such commissions.
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